Recursion Error

Episode 81- The future well and truly sucks


The throne room to the castle was about what Sorun had expected. Big, open, brightly lit. Bright colors everywhere. Interestingly two giant thrones were set up at the back of the room, and if he looked up he could see another statue of the human/Overlander girl with the angel wings fitted in a depression in the wall above the chairs. And honestly the place was so big it was less a room and more a great hall.

Sonic flying into Sorun's view and rolling to a stop at his feet ceased the sightseeing, however. Lazily, Sorun looked down and noted the multiple scuff marks all around the hedgehog's body, the somewhat laboored breathing and shaking, though otherwise he seemed no worse for wear. He glanced up to see King Shadow across the room, giving Sorun a wide-eyed look, his crown and cape discarded, and then looked back down when he heard him cough and saw Sonic looking up at him.

"And here I was thinking you'd already have this wrapped up," Sorun said, voice slightly mocking.

Sonic groaned and had the audacity to roll over on his side. "Gimme a break. My knees started clicking a couple years ago."

"... Dang man." Not feeling overly sympathetic, Sorun looked back up at King Shadow. "Well, catch a breather and come help when you can. I'll take him on."

"Yeah, sure, go for it." Sonic waved a hand up in the air as Sorun stepped over him and began approaching King Shadow. "Just gonna... phew, yeah, just gonna chill here for a bit."

On the outside, Sorun managed to keep on a neutral, overly unexpressive face as he slowly walked towards the dark hedgehog. On the inside he was worried. He'd only ever fought him once, that one time long ago, and that'd been against a Shadow for the most part going easy on him in a training bout, whereas this one was likely aiming to kill Sorun right here.

But, on the other hand, Sorun liked to think he was at least moderately more skilled than he was back then. Even so, he wasn't comfortable going into this with just two powers, really one and a weapon he could lose. He wouldn't be comfortable doing this even with all seven if it were possible; he was, after all, a Shadow if not his Shadoow. He'd seen what he could do, and Sorun genuinely didn't think too highly of his chances at winning this. Maybe if Sonic managed to get back in fighting shape, maybe, though it stung Sorun's pride to no end that he had to rely on him for help.

Still, this was something that had to be done, whether Sorun liked it or not. And it was far too late to turn back anyways.

"I vividly recall having killed you," King Shadow stated in an even tone. Sorun had stopped right in front of him, the two once again staring intently at each other. Sorun had unsheathed his katana, scabbard held in his left hand and the sword in the other, while King Shadow's right hand was tightly clenching a crackling spear made of pure Chaos energy.

Sorun shrugged at the observation. "I'll be real with you, Shadow. With how many time's I've come close to dying or actually died in the past year, I really don't think I can die."

"That remains to be seen, I'm afraid." The two slowly began to circle one another. "What exactly is it you hope to accomplish here?" the king questioned him. "Depose me of the crown and then what? You'll 'fix the world' of all my crimes?"

Sorun didn't respond at first. He'd glanced over his shoulder and saw Sonic still lying a fair distance away from them. A fair bit out of earshot, probably even passed out from the way he was barely moving. "I don't really know what Sonic has planned for the government," Sorun admitted, turning back to King Shadow. "And I don't much care. His goals aren't the same as mine."

King Shadow's features tightened. He shot Sorun a wary look at the answer. "Is that so? Then why go through all this? You could have simply left after escaping that table, however you accomplished that. You evaded me for twenty-five years after the ARK, despite my efforts; you could have done so again."

"I seriously don't have any idea what you're talking about," Sorun claimed, a weathered sigh leaving him as he slumped his shoulders.

The harsh glare being sent to him by the half-Mobian didn't waver. "Explain," he demanded. "Why do this? What do you possibly have to gain?"

"If you really must know, I don't agree with them. Those quitters are content to just make whatever they can of this new world." Sorun had grown a tone that made it sound as if he was disgusted with the entire situation, and in all honesty, he was. He wasn't satisfied settling for this world, this timeline. Not at all. Not when there was a chance at fixing everything. "No, I'm after something different entirely. I want to return to the other timeline. The true timeline. Not this... mockery that should never have even existed in the first place."

King Shadow blinked at first, almost in confusion. He'd glanced down as he processed Sorun's words, like he couldn't believe what he just heard, though slowly his crimson eyes had widened further and further. And then he appeared to grow angrier by the second. "You're insane," he snarled out, snapping his head back up to meet Sorun's gaze. "You would return this world to all that chaos I saved it from? Undo everything I've done to save this world for... for what? Why?"

He sounded more than angry, Sorun had realized. Some other emotion behind his tone, more primal than anger. He sounded horrified, not out of fear, but out of the mere implication of Sorun's goal, out of genuine confusion for why he would even want that. It caused the human to pause when he realized how heavily King Shadow actually believed in everything he'd done being for the better. And a small part of him would admit that, if he looked hard enough, he may have found himself somewhat agreeing.

But he was beyond caring at this point. It didn't matter. None of it did. The only thing that did matter was the right timeline.

"I don't like you," Sorun said in a plain, honest tone, causing King Shadow to stiffen. "Not you, nor this world. That's all." He rose his sword up and pointed its tip at King Shadow. "And as it stands, you'll just do everything you can to stop me. That's where we are, and that's where we'll be until we settle this."

"It would appear so," King Shadow agreed, tone low and eyes smoldering. Quite literally, actually, as his red irises were glowing slightly and the Chaos Spear he held was crackling with more intense energy. "I don't know if what you desire is even possible, but it won't matter. I will not let that blue buffoon back there undo my work. And above all else, I will not let you undo this entire world."

Sorun blinked, and lowered his sword down. The conviction he heard in the other's voice was more genuine than he thought anybody could make themselves sound, enough that he found himself surprised. He shook his head of it after, grip tightening on his sword and scabbard as he stared the down the darkened hedgehog.

Deciding not to waste any more time, Sorun decided to make the first move. He rushed forwards, closing the distance between the two of them in a single step and swinging the Yamato at a speed so fast King Shadow had fractionally widened his eyes in surprise. He was quick enough, however, to raise his Chaos Spear up and block the strike, deadlocking the two weapons as white and green sparks flew between the pair as they struggled against one another.


King Shadow

The Despotic Savior


King Shadow had began gritting his teeth and putting his all into pushing Sorun's sword back with his energy spear, but despite his efforts he wasn't able to make the human budge even with both hands on the weapon. Sorun was making an equal amount of progress, scowling as he used his left hand to push the sword's scabbard against the back of the blade. In a rare moment of being proud of himself Sorun was pleased to find it was actually sufficient in pushing King Shadow back. It was slow, but he was winning the contest of strength.

Disbelief crossed King Shadow's face as he found himself being pushed back. He planted his feet on the ground, pushing the entirety of his weight against the sword, though it did nothing to halt Sorun's progress. A growl left him at the same time an igniting sound was heard, Sorun glancing down to see the jets on the underside of his shoes had activated. And with that Sorun found that he was the one being pushed back now.

"Forgot about those," Sorun thought. He decided to abandon the deadlock, twisting around King Shadow's body and dragging the sword along the side of the green Chaos Spear. The sudden lack of pressure bearing down on him had forced Shadow to unexpectedly dash forwards, and a hiss left him when Yamato's edge dragged along his shoulder and cut him as he passed Sorun. He huffed out, green energy surrounding the cut and causing it to slowly closed as he turned towards Sorun.

"You were never this fast or strong. What did you do to yourself?" he asked, eyes glancing up at Sorun's hair. "You cha-"

He was cut off when Sorun rushed forwards again and slashed at King Shadow. He dodged back to avoid being cut by the blade, though he did offer Sorun an incensed, almost insulted glance as the human met his eyes right after.

"We had a chance to talk it out. That's long passed." Sorun sheathed Yamato, feet widening as his eyes narrowed in concentration. Crackling, blue energy began arcing over the Yamato's scabbard. "You made your stance on the matter clear enough anyway."

In credit to his guile, King Shadow had moved like he intended to attack Sorun. Before he'd had the chance, though, Sorun's arms had moved, and for a split second the entire sword he held shifted into an intense blue color. Using the Yamato's power to cut through time and space itself, he'd unsheathed and re-sheathed the katana in a movement so fast not even King Shadow had been able to perceive it, causing his movements to stall in surprise. His entire body was surrounded by a bubble of warped space, and he had the sense to try and dodge out of it once the brief confusion passed him.

He'd been just a bit too slow, though. His left arm had still been caught in Judgement Cut's area of effect, and had been assaulted by the endless amount of ethereal slashes in the bubble. He shouted out in pain, rolling away into a kneel while panting heavily. He brought his left arm up to his face, a gasping sound leaving the hedgehog when he saw his entire arm was riddled in countless, bleeding gashes and cuts.

Before the disbelief and confusion faded from his face, another warped bubble of space surrounded him as Sorun unleashed the technique yet again. King Shadow had been quicker at reacting the second time around, his shoes igniting and propelling him far outside of the attack's range before it managed to strike. Sorun's own eyes did their best to keep up with the king as he quite literally skated in circles around him. Skating fast enough that he was easily able to outmaneuver the bubbles of warped space that appeared in his path that threatened to cut him to ribbons.

Seeing that his efforts were doing no good, Sorun released a quiet, disgruntled sigh as he did his best to keep up with the red and black blur circling around him. He was surprised to find that, even with Devil's Body's enhanced reflexes, he was having trouble keeping up with him. He'd been easily able to sidestep it when a Chaos Spear had been thrown at him, almost effortlessly, but the hedgehog himself was skating at a speed just too fast for Sorun to follow with his eyes. If he weren't so frustrated he would have been impressed.

Then he heard it. That unique whirring sound. That high-pitched whine that indicated something was rapidly spinning through the air, and Sorun knew exactly what that object was. It'd struck before he even had time to react: King Shadow's spinning body, spines flared out, zooming past him and shredding across his arms and chest. The wounds healed instantly, but it was still distressing for Sorun to learn that the hedgehog's Spin Dash was somehow even faster than him simply skating around him on the rocket shoes.

It was a que King Shadow seemed to pick up on, too, because he kept doing it. Skating outside of Sorun's melee range, keeping to his blind spots and then quickly Spin Dashing towards him at a speed Sorun couldn't intercept. He certainly tried, swinging Yamato in the direction he heard the sound in or in the direction his peripheral caught a hint of black and red, but either he was too slow or King Shadow was so maneuverable even while in a Spin Dash he could simply just dodge the sword strikes. Sorun reckoned both cases were true, which made him even more concerned.

There was intense worry, too, every single time he felt the king shred across his body. The regeneration would hold up, but unlike it Sorun's stamina wasn't infinite. He wasn't feeling winded, not yet, but that wouldn't remain true for long if King Shadow kept chipping away at him with those damnable Spin Dashes.

"If he keeps hopping around like that I'm gonna cut his fucking legs off." He was probably going to have to at this rate, what with Sorun steadily realizing that, even with the white hair, he was getting outclassed here in terms of speed. But the problem was King Shadow was sticking to a winning strategy and unless he used something else-

Suddenly Sorun's head picked up in realization, but then he grimaced. This wasn't something he wanted to use so early, and it said a lot that he was being forced to pull this out near the beginning of the fight. But he was running out of options, desperate, and Sonic still hadn't gotten up to help. But even still, this wasn't something even King Shadow could doge as long as he was caught in it, and, lacking any other options, Sorun decided to commit to it.

The Yamato was fully sheathed, and Sorun's feet slowly spread out. He let out a slow breath as he concentrated as hard as he could at the sword held in his left hand. A wide ring of blue energy spread out around him-

King Shadow Spin Dashed across Sorun's back. The human stumbled, cursing under his breath as his wound healed, but the blue circle had faded. He tried once again, assuming the same stance with his right hand hovering over the katana's handle, eyes piercing as he tried to focus, but the blue ring that had been spreading from his body the second time around didn't even get the chance to fully expand before he was once again struck by King Shadow.

"It's no good. He's not giving me an opportunity to get Judgement Cut End off." It was a fact Sorun was coming to a grim realization of, even as he stood firm and attempted to initiate the move, over and over, only for it to be interrupted by a hit from King Shadow. The move itself required an intense amount of concentration just to perform on Sorun's part, and while he theoretically could perform it no problem even while under the assault of light damage, the equivalent of having a spinning buzz saw the size of an adult Mobian shredding across his body was by no means light damage. If he were in his normal, black-haired body just one of those hits would have been enough to kill him. The large splashes of blood - Sorun's blood - thrown all around the glossy flooring around him said enough.

While Sorun continued to stand there, silently panicking as he attempted to figure out what to do next, the miraculous happened: King Shadow made a mistake. Perhaps he'd grown tired of using Spin Dash, or, and Sorun figured this was most likely, him standing in place and essentially tanking all the Spin Dashes with subsequently no visible wounds on his body must have given the impression to the half-Mobian that what he was doing wasn't an effective strategy.

He'd be wrong in thinking that, of course, as it actually was a devastating strategy, but despite the blood all around Sorun there was no visible evidence of that. So it seemed that King Shadow decided to change his approach and did probably the most foolish thing possible:

He went in for a punch.

Sorun had seen it immediately when King Shadow began skating straight towards him, fist reeled back for the punch and the angry look on his face. Sorun was almost tempted to laugh at him, and probably would have if it weren't for the fact that the punch actually landed.

Sure, the combination of the rocket shoes and King Shadow's swing speed made it so that Sorun had no chance of dodging the hit. And yes, it'd struck with enough force that Sorun felt the bones in his face splinter and break under the one hit. Superficial damage seeing as it would all heal before the gloved fist would even leave his face. Sorun didn't care about that.

What he did care about was that King Shadow wasn't able to pull his hand away nearly as fast as he was able to punch with it. Which gave Sorun the perfect opportunity to snap his right hand up and grab King Shadow's wrist.

By then King Shadow's eyes had widened, realizing the mistake he'd made. He attempted to wrench his arm out of Sorun's grip, but the teen held firm. So firm, in fact, that he felt bones creaking and crunching under his grip he was squeezing down so hard, causing an angered King Shadow to grimace in pain.

"Nowhere to run," Sorun growled out, twisting the wrist around. He felt bone splinter in his grip, causing King Shadow to grit his teeth and pull harder in an attempt to free himself. It wasn't enough, though, and Sorun took this to heart as the blue ribbon on the Yamato's scabbard wrapped around his waist of its own accord. His left hand grabbed the sword's handle and pulled it out, dark scabbard secured to his waist as his blue eyes gazed downwards, to the hedgehog's legs.

There'd been no hesitation or consideration on Sorun's part. He'd swung the Yamato as quickly as he could, right at King Shadow's thighs with the intent on cutting clean through his legs. There was no way for King Shadow to avoid it, and he seemed to catch on to the plan as his pulling became more frantic. But by then it was no good, as the blade struck true and hit its mark.

But then something happened that shouldn't have.

Sorun stared, wide-eyed and disbelieving. The sword had struck King Shadow's leg; that wasn't the problem. The problem was it was stuck halfway into his leg, wedged between muscle and tissue, not even reaching the bone. Which shouldn't have been the case, as the blade should have effortlessly cleaved through both of the limbs with its power of separation. It shouldn't have been stopped at all.

Unless...

"Oh no. You're kidding me." So stunned by this new revelation Sorun wasn't able to immediately pick up the sound of crackling energy near him. He did eventually, though by the time he looked up towards the source of the noise, the crackling Chaos Spear in King Shadow's left hand, it was too late. The king swung the energy spear at Sorun, who was forced to block it with the flat end of the blade after it had been swiftly pulled out from King Shadow's leg. It'd struck with such force Sorun was tossed backwards, losing his grip on the king's arm and rolling across the ground before coming to a stop.

A small grunt escaped Sorun, who'd stopped on his back and facing the ceiling. He heard a wheezing sigh besides him, and turned his head enough to see that he happened to land next to Sonic, who was now sitting up and glancing down at Sorun. Between that and the troubling information the Earthling had just encountered, he couldn't help the deep frown that settled over his face.

"Hey, Sorun, how's it going?" Sonic tiredly mumbled out, glancing between him and King Shadow, who stood nearby with that smoldering scowl on his face. "I thought the magic sword was supposed to cut through everything?"

"It would appear Shadow has so much Chaos energy naturally running through him that he's negating Yamato's power of separation," Sorun blankly responded, a bitter edge to his tone. It was just like all the way back when he was fighting that mech suit Eggman was in, the one with the Chaos Emerald installed in it. He wouldn't be able to instantly win with a single, clean strike. And what made it worse was that whatever that alien DNA mixed into his biology did made King Shadow, at least his muscles, tough and dense as hell. Separation power nullified or not he still should have been able to cleave through his legs with his current strength.

A pit began settling in Sorun stomach as he was beset with worry. This fight just grew much, much more dangerous if that was the case. He'd been banking on ending this with a single, decisive hit. But he couldn't even get that, and he was struggling to think of another solution to beating him. Never mind even getting another chance at getting a hit in.

"Really, huh?" Sonic's voice made Sorun shift his attention back to him. A troubled look was on the blue hedgehog's face. "So it can't hurt him?"

Sorun began sitting up alongside Sonic while saying, "Well, I can still cut him with the physical edge of the actual sword." His frown worsened. It was looking like he'd need Sonic help with this, desperately, a fact that was only increasing his frustration at the whole situation. He squashed the feeling down and looked at Sonic. "I'm going to set up 'that' move. I need you to keep him off me and lead him into it."

Sonic sent him a confused look for a second before he made an understanding noise. "Oh, the big ring thing with the-"

"The Judgement Cut End, yes," Sorun sighed out. He bit his tongue to avoid shouting out when he heard Sonic chuckle besides him.

"Almost forgot about those names." Sonic made a soft grunt as he pushed up off the ground. "Get him in the circle, right, no biggie."

Sorun nodded at Sonic, and then looked back towards King Shadow. He was still giving the both of them smoldering glares, and it seemed Sorun had caught him just when he had finished healing. There were still vestiges of green energy floating around him that were fading away, but the mangled bone in his wrist was straight again and the cuts on his arm had disappeared entirely. And he seemed to be giving Sorun more attention than Sonic.

He would have likely made a move against the Earthling right there and then if he wasn't struck by a blue object moving faster than Sorun's enhanced eyes could perceive. King Shadow had stumbled back, though from the look on his face he looked more insulted than stunned in any capacity. He snapped his head over his shoulders to glare at Sonic, body practically quaking with rage.

From there, Sorun just wasn't able to keep up with what was happening. The best he could make out were two vaguely round, spinning objects clashing against each other over and over, zooming and curving all around the throne room at such speeds Sorun wasn't able to pin them down at specific locations. Most of what he could make out were the trails of blue, black and red being left and the sounds. The high-pitched whirring of their spinning bodies moving quickly through space and shredding through sound barriers, the loud, dull thuds of their bodies impacting each other at such a high rate a machine gun firing would have sounded slower.

It was honestly chaotic to behold, almost disorienting. And this was with Devil's Body's reflexes. Sorun wouldn't doubt if he had to watch this fight with normal eyes he'd either see nothing or throw up from all the motion. His jaw had tightened at the sight. How not just one, but two people could be moving so incomprehensibly fast.

He scoffed and tightened his grip on Yamato. It didn't matter if his speed couldn't compare. He had things over them. All he had to do was win this fight to prove that much.

Once again beginning the process of clearing his mind and putting all his focus into the sword he held, Sorun felt the ring of blue power fully extend around him as the Yamato's energy built up. He'd cracked his eyes open, right hand hovering over the handle, to observe the battle between the two Mobians, but they were still moving hopelessly fast and the blue wall of flowing energy surrounding him didn't help his visuals.

Though, actually, now that he looked closer he could see... yeah, Sonic was slowing down. He was still moving incredibly fast, but it was measurably slower than King Shadow and dropping. What quick glances Sorun could catch revealed a strained, winded look on the Mobian's face. Either exertion from the blunt injuries he was sustaining or dropping stamina. Likely both, and the fact he was fighting someone eternally in the prime of their youth likely didn't help matters.

But he was still doing his part, leading King Shadow towards the blue circle surrounding Sorun. Mostly just drawing him further in by hanging around just outside the technique's range of effectiveness, though no matter what he did King Shadow wasn't being baited into entering the circle. He wouldn't even enter it to try and disrupt what Sorun was doing, likely, and correctly, assuming he'd had enough time to set up the technique and was just waiting for him to enter.

It was as frustrating as it was harrowing. This wasn't something Sorun could hold forever; the physical toll was draining. He only had a few more seconds before he'd be forced to drop it entirely, and in his state Sorun wasn't positive that Sonic would be able to defend Sorun if his guard were to drop for that long.

Just as worry began to set in Sorun Sonic had done something. Either out of desperation or seeing Sorun's distress, he'd pulled a move and curved mid-air right behind King Shadow in a move that, if Sorun were a physicist, he probably would have called impossible without sheering his body in half. Despite that, Sonic had still managed the maneuver and exited it kicking outwards. King Shadow, mirroring the movement, had committed to the same kick, causing both hedgehogs to be struck and sent flying back. Sonic had impacted the ground a far distance away and rolled to a stop.

King Shadow had been launched right into the Judgement Cut End's area of influence. For the briefest moment Sorun had caught a look of panic on the half-Mobian's face. That was the only action he was able to do before Sorun disappeared entirely.

Time itself completely froze. Innumerable, invisible seems in space appeared, accompanied by momentary warps in the air around them as space and time were cut apart, with King Shadow's motionless body frozen in the air in the middle of it all. Phantom silhouettes that had cut the seams converged into a single body, who slowly began to sheath the katana as the invisible seams thinned.

At the moment the sword was fully sheathed, the seams disappeared, time resumed, and pieces of reality broke away and rained down like immaterial shards of glass. There was a single scream and the sound of blood splattering the ground behind Sorun as blue electricity arced violently around his whole body.

The human teen turned his head right when he heard King Shadow's body thump onto the floor. To his surprise, King Shadow was still fully conscious, albeit kneeling down on a single knee. How he was still conscious, though, Sorun didn't have a clue. Long, deep gashes had been cut throughout his entire body. Cuts deep enough that in more than a few spots Sorun saw hints of white bone peaking out from the deep cuts, with blood freely flowing out of the wounds and matting the fur all over his body. Heavy, heaving pants were leaving the hedgehog as he fixed Sorun with exhausted, baleful eyes, eyes so full of hate they somehow were able to mask the pain he was in.

More unbelievably, he began to stand up. It was plain to see he was having difficulty, his body was shaking from the effort, but he was still managing it. Sorun scowled at the sight and fully turned towards King Shadow.

"How the hell are you still standing?" He was honestly surprised he was even in one piece. That technique didn't cut the targets it was intended for: it cut the very space they occupied. By all rights he should have been diced into a million pieces, though it seemed the Chaos energy that allowed him to nullify Yamato's abilities allowed him to weather even that. Just barely, at least. Though Sorun found his scowl deepening when green energy began to surround the dozens of bone-deep cuts spread all over King Shadow's body. "Oh, you're kidding. Black Arms DNA is such bullshit."

King Shadow didn't bother responding. The wounds he suffered were closing - slowly, more slowly than they had been since the beginning of the fight Sorun had noted - but they were still rapidly healing. It was enough that King Shadow seemed to get some of his composure back, and made it known he was still willing and able to fight by taking a step forwards.

A step forwards was all he managed before he froze entirely. It was a pause so sudden even Sorun was a bit surprised by it, by that and the intense shock that instantly formed in King Shadow's eyes. He slowly dipped his head down, something like fear appearing on his face as he looked towards his feet.

He'd let out a strangled gasp when he saw his shoes littered in deep gashes, the occasional electrical spark sputtering out from one of the cuts made in the footwear.

Of course Sorun had been aiming for the shoes when he'd finally caught King Shadow in the Judgement Cut End. They'd been his true goal, though severely wounding King Shadow to this state, if not outright decommissioning him entirely, had been a swell enough bonus. As far as he knew, unlike Sonic, all his speed depended on those things. Even without them he may have had advanced speed above a Mobian's norm, but Sorun doubted it was above his own while in Devil's Body. Even if it was as long as it slowed him down that Sorun could actually hit him it didn't matter.

So yeah. He'd aimed for the shoes. As far as Sorun cared it was the equivalent of cutting his legs off.

"Yeah, that's right." Sorun ripped Yamato from its scabbard as he began stomping towards King Shadow. "No more zipping around on fucking rocket shoes for you."

The expression that formed on King Shadow's face caused Sorun to pause in his footsteps, more out of surprise than anything else. He'd thought he'd seen the upper limits on how angry King Shadow could look, both him and the actual Shadow Sorun knew. That anger or frustration could only bring him so far and that Sorun had seen all of what he had to offer in that department. He just wasn't the kind of person that ever went beyond quiet anger.

Apparently that was wrong, because Sorun didn't think he'd encountered the expression King Shadow wore when he looked up at him on anyone else in his entire life. To call him angry or livid would be a gross understatement. There was such fury twisted onto the hedgehog's face that it was almost staggering to see how angry a single person could get. He could practically feel the rage wafting off of him. Hell, for all his Chaos powers for all Sorun knew he really was projecting tangible anger for him to feel. Either that or he left that much of an impression.

But none of that could have prepared him for the sight of a single, lone tear rolling down from eyes that, just now, Sorun had realized held more than anger and rage than his face. He looked almost distraught. Pained. Not from physical wounds, but from something deeper. With that added into the rage he held it formed an expression Sorun would have figured was reserved for when someone's mother was just shot to death in front of them. He couldn't fathom why he held that expression until he remembered that King Shadow hadn't looked nearly upset until he figured out Sorun destroyed his special shoes.

"How attached was he to those things that he's crying over them?" Sorun wondered. Despite the fact he'd just crippled King Shadow's mobility, something primal in himself was letting off warning signs, and he found himself growing wary of his opponent. "Guess I'd be upset if my coat got permanently ruined, but come on-"

Mid-thought King Shadow had disappeared, and Sorun found himself remembering that there were other abilities the half-Mobian held on account of his alien DNA outside of what he'd encountered already. Such as teleporting. And stopping time. He didn't know which one King Shadow just used, but he was cognizant of the presence suddenly behind him and the sound of crackling energy.

In a desperate bid Sorun whirled around, raising his sword up defensively. By the time he managed to see King Shadow he'd already been mid-swing with a Chaos Spear. He'd felt Yamato's edge brush up against the spear, but he'd been too late to even attempt at parrying or blocking the strike. By the time Sorun managed to recognize what was happening it was far too late.

That was primarily the reason why the Chaos Spear ended up cutting through his whole neck.


This thing was an impossibility.

Thing. Oddity. Anomaly. Those were the only labels Shadow could see himself giving Sorun, because he couldn't see him as an Overlander. Or that strange lot that lived in the city in the mountain, those humans. Humans and Overlanders didn't have abilities of this caliber. Not even the odd technomancer that cropped up among Overlanders, like that annoying woman from the eastern lands he'd killed long ago. Humans and Overlanders in general had such weak Chaos Force links they never manifested abilities outside of those exceptions.

He'd thought as much until they first met twenty-five years ago on Space Colony ARK. He hadn't had white hair then, or these enhanced physical attributes, or that thing he kept swinging around. He had everything else. The face, demeanor, clothes. Missing was the flippant attitude he'd held.

That and those... arms. The ones he'd broken Shadow with. He fully expected those to come out at some point during the fight in an attempt to twist Shadow into submission yet again, prepared for it, even, but they never sprouted over his shoulders. They never showed up even once, not a hint of them, which was an extreme curiosity to Shadow. Maybe Sorun didn't figure they'd be useful to countering his speed, and to be fair, he'd be right.

Or maybe he didn't have them. Which would support the argument that Sorun was telling the truth in that they never met. Shadow hadn't believed him, not a word, but that in addition with the lack of those arms, these new powers... well, frankly he had to wonder if he was telling the truth and it really was someone completely different. The fact he showed no visible age from back then lead credence to it. A son, maybe, the age fit, the coat could have been handed down, but the fact they had the exact same face and voice made him hesitant to accept that theory.

Something didn't add up. He wanted to know what, because he hadn't gotten this far leaving unknowns and curiosities in his wake, things that posed a risk coming up to bite him in the back when he gave slack. He'd learned that particular lesson long ago. But the fact he and that blue meddler were playing for keeps and refused to back down, and that somehow Sorun had evaded death itself, took precedent over unraveling a curious mystery. Not after all the work he'd done towards finally making a peaceful world. He wouldn't let anything or anyone put that in jeopardy.

It was somewhat of a shame Sorun would die before Shadow would ever figure out what exactly his deal had been, but it wasn't as if it would matter once he died. Give it a few decades and the memory would fade away. It wasn't important in the grand scheme of things.

He thought it'd be as simple as overwhelming Sorun with sheer speed until the fight had actually begun. He honestly didn't know what Sorun had done to himself. What his abilities really were, where this strength that he obviously hadn't had before came from, what the significance behind the change of hair was. He almost suspected it to be a Super form of some sort, maybe even a bootleg or poor mimic, but that theory was cast aside. It didn't appear anything of the sort and he would have felt such a thing. Another mystery to be cast aside with the anomaly's corpse.

It would have been as easy as that, but whatever change Sorun had gone under was significant, though he was still slow. Oh, he was fast, there was no doubt on that. From observing Shadow concluded that this new Sorun could move at speeds even a Mobian couldn't perceive. To him it was still slow as could be. No, the danger was his strength. That and his... recovery ability.

That was what was really throwing him for a loop. His hits were landing, he knew they were. The blood surrounding the boy proved that he was doing damage. But every time he'd looked back there wasn't so much as a single wound on Sorun's body. He'd peg it as regeneration, but to think he could heal so fast the wound disappeared in practically the same breath as the wound being inflicted was impossible. Not when even Shadow himself couldn't regenerate to such an insane degree. But something was going on with him that was making it so wounds just weren't sticking. Even that strange coat of his was repairing any damage it sustained.

Another oddity. Another mystery. Another thing to forget about once this was over with.

The fight itself was progressing along how Shadow had expected it to. There were admittedly some hiccups, ones he should have predicted beforehand, but they were easily circumvented. It would have easily concluded in his victory if that meddler, that false king, that... pretender hadn't decided that being knocked around senseless one time around hadn't been enough.

It shouldn't have mattered. That blue hedgehog was old and worn. That boy just didn't have the power. Shadow should have been able to handle them easily enough until Sorun had unleashed that... attack. The one with the field of blue energy surrounding him.

He'd tried using it multiple times in the fight. Every sense, Mobian and otherwise, screamed at Shadow that he absolutely did not want to get caught in whatever it was. He'd been able to knock him out of performing it a few times before he fully prepared it, and that had been working well enough, but then the false king Sonic interfered. Bought the human enough time to prepare the attack. And if it weren't for him sacrificing himself like a queen on a chess board he could have simply avoided going near Sorun.

Except he had. Shadow's instincts must have been true, because Sonic apparently thought the attack was worth taking a devastating hit just to get Shadow in its attack range - what he assumed the blue circle surrounding Sorun represented. He hadn't even had the time to react before it happened.

Pain, deep and excruciating, had erupted on multiple points of his body. Simultaneously, with no gaps between them. Time manipulation of some sort, had to be, and considering what happened on the ARK he couldn't be that surprised; he'd hit him with such a cheap trick before after all.

But this was different. The influence on time was there, but subtle. The feeling of space temporarily being warped, seeing pieces of reality fragment out of the space around them before it repaired itself, the cuts all along his body that somehow felt like more than cuts, the overwhelming amount of that rancid energy that lingered in the air. The pain of those horrible, grievous wounds.

Worry that hadn't bloomed in so long he'd nearly forgotten the feeling spread in his chest. Genuine worry for his own life was beginning to show, and he didn't like it. It wasn't supposed to be feasibly possible. The entire reason he was engineered was to be superior to all other lifeforms. Biology couldn't outpace him. Engineering couldn't overcome him, and Robotnik had stressed that theory to the limit before his demise. His power over Chaos was supposed to be second to none.

And Sorun had none of that. None. So why was he getting so far? What was he?

The fact he had to kneel there, heavily panting while struggling in his mind not to succumb to the pain of his wounds was just as nauseating as the wounds themselves. The cooling sensation of pain being deadened by his regeneration was a comforting one, but the repairs were going slower than he would have liked; his powers were being pushed to their limits with these cuts, and with everything that'd already happened the beginning tinges of exhaustion were already setting in.

"How the hell are you still standing?" Shadow looked up. Sorun was just standing there, that... look in his eyes. It was something so beyond contempt Shadow couldn't even comprehend what it was. Scorn the likes of which nobody had ever dared give him of all people, even before he'd been crowned king. It was more insulting than the wounds he'd inflicted. "Oh, you're kidding. Black Arms DNA is such bullshit."

It wasn't a total shock Sorun knew of his origins, G.U.N. had leaked all sorts of information before its disbandment and he hadn't cared enough to try and plug information leaks over the decades, but it was still somewhat surprising. Then again, he'd known where Space Colony ARK was. How that had been possible he'd never discovered, and every Overlander he'd ever spoken with swore they'd never even heard of him. And he'd been thorough with the questioning.

Still, it didn't matter. He felt some indignation at the language used at him, but it was false bravado at the end of the day. A single glance told Shadow that the blue hedgehog was unconscious and down for the count, which just left Sorun. And as there was no way Shadow would ever go into that attack again, he was essentially defenseless against him while Shadow himself couldn't be touched.

Shakily, he stood up to his feet in open defiance to Sorun's insulting gaze and took a step forwards. It would be over in a matter of moments. He'd aim for his limbs, dismember him one by one starting with the arm holding that infuriating-

The jets on his sneakers didn't fire.

A strangled, uncontrollable gasp left Shadow. That shouldn't be possible. Those sneakers were designed to be as timeless as him, by a mind greater than anyone else this planet had ever produced. They'd never failed him even once in his over eighty decades of life. The technology was infallible. Perfect. There was no possible way they could fail to activate even after he began directing his Chaos energy into the devices... unless...

Terror, actual terror completely separate and unrelated to Shadow's own life, gripped his heart as he slowly looked down. They couldn't be damaged. That couldn't happen. The worst of G.U.N.s weapons and Robotnik's machinations never so much as laid a scratch on his precious footwear. There was no conceivable way-

Something inside of Shadow broke when he finally saw his sneakers. They were in tatters. So many cuts and fissures that half of the shoes were practically gone, circuitry and wires spilling out of the exposed parts. Any attempt at activating them resulted in pathetic, blue sparks being spit out from the exposed internals.

"Yeah, that's right. No more zipping around on fucking rocket shoes for you."

Sorun's voice completely failed to reach Shadow's ears. Most of the world around him faded away, his sole focus on the pieces of ruined footwear he had on. Distraught that was near a level he'd only felt once in his entire life tore through him as he took in the remains of his sneakers, or at least what little was left of them. He was so stunned he didn't even notice the single tear rolling down his face.

Images flashed through his head of a smiling old man and a laughing girl. Hundreds and hundreds of images that remained crystal clear despite every other unrelated memory dulling with time. Among them was the image of the both of them presenting those very same shoes he cherished so much, both holding joyous llooks. The shoes that had been his only companion ever since those two people were lost to him. His only mementos.

He ruined them.

There was rage as the world faded back into his senses. Anger that sent his blood boiling as he looked up at Sorun, the corners of his vision tinted red. He'd paused while moving towards Shadow, some of the contempt fading from his eyes to show surprise at Shadow's sudden turn.

Shadow didn't care. His power flexed outwards, a red ring spreading out from him and temporarily bathing the entire world in inverted colors for a few moments before everything returned back to their normal colorization. Everything, from physical objects to Sorun to the air itself had been completely frozen as time ground to a halt, all except for Shadow, who began trudging forwards with heavy pants.

By now his wounds were only halfway towards being healed and he was really feeling the strain. Were he in top physical form he would have formed a Chaos Spear right now and skewered Sorun's face while in the stopped time, but with how he was now he was struggling just to maintain the halted time. He'd have to do with appearing behind him and beheading him with a hastily-made Chaos Spear once he let go of the power.

He deserved more as far as Shadow was concerned. He'd doled out far worse deaths to those who had done far less, but what Sorun had done, in addition to what he was trying to do, called for so much more. A simple beheading, such a quick and clean death, felt almost like a disservice. But he couldn't help it. So much hate boiling in him for the thing standing frozen in front of him. What he was, what he represented, the humiliation given to Shadow by him time and time again, ruining his most precious mementos...

There was no question that the person standing before him was the person he hated most in the entire world. So he couldn't control himself from moving forwards to cut his head off so he didn't have to deal with him anymore.

Once Shadow was in position behind Sorun, time resumed. The instant the power left and the world returned to motion was the same moment a Chaos Spear sprang to life in his hand. Sorun, surprisingly, had caught on to what he was doing and had whirled around, blade in hand. By then Shadow had already swung, and though he was near successful in intercepting it with his blade, Sorun had been just too slow.

He thought he'd feel satisfaction in seeing the Chaos Spear cleave through Sorun's neck entirely, leaving a large, red line. At seeing the mixture of shock and surprise on Sorun's face after getting his head severed from his body. But there was nothing. No satisfaction, no relief, no anything. Nothing but pain for the loss of the sneakers, and not even beheading Sorun was enough to ease the aches he felt in his heart.

Shadow turned around in disgust, not even bothering to watch Sorun's head drop away from his body. His eyes locked onto Sonic's body nearby. A snarl tore past his lips as he made his way towards the still body, Chaos Spear clenched in his hand. Everything was his fault. His and Sorun's. Him, that miserable mutant fox and family of echidna, everything. To having his rule threatened, to have all the work he'd done towards bettering the world go to waste, for destroying the last thing he had of her-!

The blade of a katana burst out through Shadow's chest. He gasped out in shock and pain, reflexively snapping his hand up to grab at the blade piercing through him. He heard ragged breathing from behind him, right next to his ear, and Shadow had a hard time figuring out if he was shaking from the blade piercing him or the impossible thought racing through his mind trying to make sense of this impossible event happening to him right now. It was less he'd turned his head around and more his own body forced it to confirm that the impossible hadn't happened, in order to assure his screaming mind something impossible hadn't happened.

Something impossible happened. Sorun had stabbed him. Sorun's head was still on his shoulders. The shocked and surprised look he wore when Shadow's Chaos Spear cleaved through his neck was replaced by a mad, frenzied look in his eyes that he wasn't even trying to hide.

"H-how...!?" This shouldn't have been happening. He should be dead. He killed him! He'd killed him multiple times by now! "Why won't you die!?"

"Regeneration."

There was no end to the malice that completely comprised the single word said by Sorun. It was less said and more hissed out, with more venom and hatred than Shadow thought possible.

And still, he wasn't satisfied with that simple explanation. A regenerative ability didn't explain it. Regeneration didn't save you from having your head cut off. He knew it didn't for him, so for anyone else it was impossible. Completely. It didn't make sense.

The suggestion was so outrageous, the audacity he would claim such a thing, lit a new fire of rage inside of Shadow and caused him to roar out as he swung his Chaos Spear. The blade was torn out of him as Sorun leapt back a fair distance, though he kept his eyes locked onto Shadow the entire time as the king turned around to face him.

"I cut your head off," he angrily snarled at him. "You couldn't have grown a new head! That isn't in the realm of possibility!" It was a bluff. Had to be. He didn't see a severed head lying around, and there would have been no way to transfer memories. Even if he grew a new head it would have been a cloned head with a freshly cloned brain. No experience, no memories. He shouldn't even have been cognizant if that were the case.

"Grow a new head? You're mistaken." Looking insulted himself, past all the hate and contempt he wore, Sorun reached a hand up to wipe a thumb over the bloody line on his neck. The skin underneath was completely unmarred and fresh, as if Shadow had never even struck it. Just like the rest of his body. "The regen's so quick it healed over. By the time your Chaos Spear came out of my neck it was already mostly healed."

"Regeneration isn't that fast." It couldn't have been. It wasn't possible. That would have been engineered into him if it were. "You're lying."

"Why? Just because you're the 'Ultimate Lifeform' and nothing's supposed to be better than you?" With a roll of his eyes Sorun nodded his head behind Shadow. Towards where the blue hedgehog was. "Oh, wait, there's Sonic over there. The guy's who's faster than you without your stupid shoes."

Shadow's teeth clacked together as his nerves flared. "Don't you dare..."

"I bet it grates you to no fucking end how you were engineered to be this perfect super weapon and some random hedgehog without a scrap of bullshit alien DNA was just born better at something than you," Sorun continued, tone scathing as he affixed Shadow with a hateful sneer. Shadow bristled uncontrollably at that look. "Hell, even in the true timeline you had a rivalry with the guy, but at least the real version of you was way more humble about it. I liked that guy. I liked him a lot. He was real down to earth. You, though..." Something, maybe sadness or pity, flickered in Sorun's eyes, but it was drowned in the hate and derision shortly after. "You're fucking nothing compared to him. Loser who has to have everything his way and turns into a crybaby over a pair of shoes. You shouldn't even exist. None of this should."

Somewhere inside of Shadow something had snapped. Having heard enough, he disappeared from his location and appeared next to Sorun, Chaos Spear mid-swing. Simply teleporting seemed to be much more ineffectual than moving within the stopped time, however, as either he'd been expecting it or Sorun's reflexes were sufficient in intercepting him. The Chaos Spear was less parried and more simply batted away by Sorun's sword, as if he felt so much disrespect he wasn't even bothering to take proper form with his sword.

Even more Shadow found his limits being pushed. At Sorun's words. His attitude. The fact he just wouldn't die. Nothing he was doing worked: teleporting around Sorun to try and surprise him would just result in him swinging the sword at Shadow, something he had no hope in overcoming other than to simply block or dodge, and with his exhaustion coupled with the teleportation delay he couldn't deploy it fast enough for rapid position switching to try and confuse the monster.

Throwing the Chaos Spear was even more ineffectual. He'd just sidestep it if it soared towards him, lazily, as if to personally insult Shadow. He'd tried tossing it at Sorun's feet, charging the Chaos Spear to explode and perhaps catch him in the explosion, but somehow Sorun knew they would explode and would just leap or sprint away before that spot would be engulfed in an explosion of energy.

Another sphere of warped space engulfed Shadow. He knew what followed this, and tried his best diving out of the way of it. His speed even with the sneakers were far above a normal Mobian's, but even that wasn't enough to save him from catching a few new cuts from the strange slashing effects that manifested inside whatever that sphere was. Sorun knew he was at a disadvantage without them, too, because he kept releasing that power. Over and over. To Shadow's credit he managed to dodge some. Some, but not all.

He was left a panting, bleeding mess, once again riddled in gashes his powers were trying desperately to heal. The thought of blood loss was yelling out to him somewhere in his mind, though he tried pushing it away. That and the sensation of his body constantly reminding him of his exhaustion. Sorun, from across the throne room, wasn't blind to his obvious health, and stopped where he was. With the way he was breathing heavily he seemed almost as exhausted as Shadow was, even if he didn't have the wounds to show it. Even still he didn't look victorious over Shadow's visually worse state. Not even happy in the slightest. He just kept staring at him like he was something that brought Sorun visible distress just to look at.

The blue ribbon attached to the scabbard of whatever that weapon was wrapped itself around Sorun's waist. He gripped the sword's handle with both hands, twisting it around and bringing the sword up to his eye level with the tip of the blade pointed directly at Shadow. Blue arcs of lightning began dancing around the length of the blade.

"I'll find a way to erase this timeline and bring back the real one. The one that's supposed to be here. The only one that should." More Chaos energy began crackling along the blade's length, and off Sorun's own body. The incomprehensibly concentrated Chaos energy that was somehow being emitted by that sword was so intense that it came off as a deep, blue fog gathering and swirling around Sorun and the sword.

Shadow reeled from the power. Not by the amount of it, but from the quality. What if felt like. From the moment Sorun had first entered the throne room he felt it, that sword. There was something intensely, extremely wrong with it, but Shadow just didn't know what it was or why it felt wrong. It just was.

But now that he could feel it so clearly due to its sudden intensity it was all too clear. It was Chaos energy so warped by whatever Sorun had done to it that it barely even felt like Chaos energy. Twisted beyond recognition. Cold where Chaos energy was warm. Intrusive and prickling on his senses when Chaos energy, even radiated by his opponents, had always felt inviting. But this was foul, stifling, and...

Pulsing. Like something with a heartbeat. But it was a heartbeat with a rhythm so off and wrong that it couldn't possibly be a beat made from a heart.

It could have been the severe blood loss Shadow was no doubt facing. That, the disorienting sensation from trying to focus in on the energy that sword was producing, anger clouding his vision, a number of combination of things. But past that swirling blue energy and sparks around the sword's silver blade, for just a moment, he could have sworn he saw them. Eyes. Dozens of eyes, housed in the blade's reflective surface, mottled in blackish-blue flesh. All staring at Shadow with the exact same look of pure disdain Sorun held. Even their color was the same as his eyes. But when he blinked, that image of the eyes in the sword was gone.

A momentary hallucination due to all the stresses on his body and mind. It was the only acceptable answer Shadow could think of. But it didn't explain why half of his very being, the Black Arms DNA that comprised his cells, was screaming at Shadow that the abomination Sorun was holding needed to be thrown into the nearest star.

"You, this castle, this world's history, all of it." The rancid Chaos energy flowing around Sorun intensified as he spoke. "I'm turning everything back to normal."

"Normal?" Of all the things Sorun had said, of all the spiteful, infuriating things he'd said and done, somehow that was worse than everything else to Shadow. He didn't mean to simply undo his work like the blue hedgehog did. At least if that happened there'd be history of what he'd done, everything he accomplished. Something for people to look back on as a guideline for how things should be should the worse pass. People loyal to him that would carry on even should he fail. A legacy made it so that wasn't a completely hopeless situation.

But what Sorun wanted... was so much worse. He didn't want to undo his work. He wanted to erase it completely! That and this entire world! Everything! All just to bring it back to... to that. That time. That awful, awful time. And the way he said it, that look in his eyes, it all conveyed the message to Shadow that Sorun didn't even think he or anything else in this timeline had a right to exist. That because they weren't in the "normal" timeline he and everyone else was less than worthless. Because they weren't "normal" in Sorun's eyes. That they were less than people.

It infuriated Shadow. Enraged him. More than that, it horrified and disgusted him. Why anybody would ever want to go back to that horrible time when things here were so much better, where the world was united and the world hadn't been torn apart by degenerates like Dr. Robotnik and other of his ilk. He wanted to bring them back. Bring everything that was wrong with the world back while doing away with people he didn't consider living people. It was revolting.

"Why!? Why are you so insistent on going back to that time!?" Shadow screamed out at him. "I saved everyone from that insanity, and you want to bring it all back!? Insanity like Robotnik!? Others like him!? You'd bring them back to life along with everything else!"

Some small part of Shadow had hoped Sorun would see sense. That he maybe misunderstood the gravity of his desire, that maybe he hadn't thought it through and wouldn't keep going forwards when the full weight of what he was trying to do crashed down on him. But he wasn't relenting in the slightest. His cold gaze remained firm and the energy swirling around him only intensified.

"I dealt with every single villainous scum plaguing this world and united everyone years before that blue cretin did in his timeline!" Shadow continued screaming out, his voice growing hysteric. "This world had peace YEARS before he managed it! Do you not think that means there are people alive in this time that never even existed in the other time!? That people that died in that time are alive in this one!? If you do this, you'll kill them all! They'll cease to exist! ARE YOU THAT SELFISH!?"

Sorun moved forwards, and not in a way Shadow expected. There was a flash of bright, blue light from the sword, and Sorun's body seemingly slid forwards without him actually moving. Like the space separating the two of them suddenly vanished and he'd been pulled to Shadow's position, almost too fast for him to react. He'd gasped out, raising his arms up to block the incoming strike from Sorun's sword. It clashed against the golden rings on his wrists, the blade struggling and sparking against them as Sorun continued pushing with the blade.

"And what about people who are dead here that are alive there!? What about people like that scientist you killed, Cobor, huh!?" Sorun yelled out as he struggled against the two rings. "Don't they deserve to live just as much!?"

Shadow found himself losing in the struggle. Against that cursed blade pulsing with blue energy, against Sorun who continued pushing against it. He tried to fight back as hard as he could, but to his utter shock Sorun kept pushing him back.

"Y-you... you're insane...!" Shadow gasped out, even as he tried calling on every bit of power he had to try and fail to push Sorun back. "People shouldn't have to die just for your selfish desires!"

Sorun didn't respond. As he continued slicing down on Shadow's wristbands, he heard it. A small crack at first, followed by subsequent, louder cracks. He looked towards the source, crimson eyes widening when he saw the sword's blade begin to chip and break through what were supposed to be the indestructible, golden rings on his wrists. The cracks became larger and more pronounced the further the blade dug into them, and red sparks of Chaos energy began arcing out from the cracks.

Were he not fighting for his life Shadow's arms would have gone slack in shock. He was actually meaning to break through the rings to get to Shadow. By all accounts that was... possibly the poorest possible choice Sorun could make. He'd intentionally guarded with the rings thinking Sorun would go out of his way to avoid them because the risk for breaking them was too great. When he actually struck Shadow figured he had taken a risk, not figuring his sword would slice through the rings.

He was honestly more surprised that Sorun was actually trying to do it than that he even could do it. Shadow only needed a moment's thought to figure out why he would ever try to do such a thing.

"He doesn't know about the inhibitor rings." That was the only conceivable explanation. There was no way Sorun would actually go for the rings otherwise.

It was probably the one saving grace that would win him this fight. As it was, there were a number of ways Shadow could have avoided the sword cutting deeper and deeper into the rings. From teleportation to stopping time to simply trying his luck to roll out of the way in hopes the blade would miss. Maybe even try to knock Sorun back with a Chaos Blast with his remaining reserve of Chaos energy. Any one of these methods would have been viable.

Instead Shadow chose to let Sorun cut through the rings and cut his hands off.


In hindsight, at some point in time, maybe Sorun should have asked the real Shadow what the deal was with the rings he wore on his wrists.

He always found it odd. Shadow never seemed like one to accessorize. The rocket shoes somewhat flew in the face of that, but they at least served a function. They got him around. That should have been Sorun's first hint that the rings he wore on his wrists, too, more than likely served some kind of function, and weren't just mere trinkets he wore. Because Shadow had been one of those Mobians that wore nothing but gloves and footwear, so the rings always seemed off to Sorun.

The second hint should have been that they looked just like Power Rings. That was probably significant.

He really should have asked.

After he killed King Shadow's shoes the fight had been going well enough. Cutting off the hedgehog's mobility like he had really put the ball in Sorun's court, because compared to that annoying aspect of King Shadow's, the rest of his powers and abilities were manageable.

Admittedly getting his... head nearly cut off... hadn't been ideal. There'd been a moment where Sorun genuinely thought he'd died there, but the neck wound had healed before the despair even set in, and he remembered his body regenerated so fast he doubted Sonic could even cut his head off fast enough to beat it. Probably the only thing Sorun had over King Shadow was that his regeneration was so much faster than his, something Shadow seemed to have a hard time believing.

Apparently demons beat out aliens on healing. Go figure.

That healing was probably the only reason Sorun even had a shot at winning, because there was a realistic chance he could just bleed King Shadow out before he himself fell. Even so, it wasn't a given, and Sorun's stamina was waning heavily, so he'd wanted to land a definitive blow and end the fight without leaving it to chance. He'd been hoping to catch King Shadow off guard by tricking him with the Yamato - using its separation power to separate the space between them so he'd instantly appear, and then use the surprise to land the definitive blow. He would have just preferred to have Trickster for a proper teleport, but a discount teleport would be better than nothing.

Or it would have been if Sorun had actually landed the hit, but King Shadow had blocked with the rings. So naturally Sorun endeavored to cut through them, maybe take King Shadow's hands in the process and make it easier on himself. To be fair he'd actually managed that. He'd even felt relieved when he felt his body suddenly lurched forwards, and saw pieces of ring and a set of hands fly away out of the edges of his vision.

And then King Shadow started glowing red. Not just the crimson stripes on his fur, but even his black fur, the white patch on his chest, and the tan fur on his muzzle. Every single part of his body began glowing red, began radiating Chaos energy thick enough that Sorun felt it crackling against his skin, and he realized right then and there this started happening because he cut through the two rings.

After that King Shadow exploded. Literally.

If Sorun were running a human body he would have died right there. In fact he was reasonably sure his whole face was flash-vaporized down to the skull after he was blasted, and then completely regenerated in the process of him being thrown back. He wasn't completely certain, but he knew he'd been blinded for a moment and he hadn't been able to feel anything in that time. Once the nerves regenerated all he felt was the sensation of being thrown backwards.

Then he hit a wall.

The fact that the entire wall, the entirety of the wall that made up that section of the throne room, completely fractured and splintered upon Sorun crashing into it was a testament to just how hard he'd been slammed into it. He'd slid down into a sitting position, panting heavily as he struggled to catch his breath even with his regeneration aiding him. When he looked down at his arms he saw that the sleeves had been blown away entirely, the coat slowly growing back over oddly clean-looking arms that Sorun suspected were freshly regenerated after having been completely destroyed from the explosion.

He was less worried about that and more on the fact his hands were empty.

A quick upwards glance revealed the blue Chaos Emerald all the way on the other side of the throne room and far away from where Sorun was. Likely blown away from him in the blast, or more likely he momentarily hadn't had fingers to grip onto the thing to prevent himself from losing it. Now it'd lost its sword form due to missing contact with him and was a disparaging distance away from him. He'd silently cursed at that, at losing the sword simply because it'd been tossed away from him. He counted himself fortunate that he'd had the foresight to surgically put the second Chaos Emerald inside of himself as a safety net, but the simple loss of Yamato justified in his mind how much Sorun hated relying on items for these life and death situations.

The giant beacon of red light standing between Sorun and the Emerald, of course, was the main reason Sorun didn't leap up and immediately try to go for the Emerald. That and he just didn't think he could get to it, with his energy exhausted to the point he was fighting to stay up. Even if he could Sorun wasn't sure he could, locked in awe and fear as he was staring at the thing slowly approaching him.

King Shadow had... Sorun didn't even know. Undergone some transformation that turned the entirety of his body red. A violent, churning red aura was permanently flailing around him with such intensity that the throne room flooring was being torn apart from his mere proximity to it, his footsteps leaving molten footprints in his wake.

And he wouldn't stop looking at Sorun. Even though his eyes had gone completely white, either from the transformation or due to his frenzied rage, Sorun could feel the hedgehog staring right at him as he approached. The power he was exuding was so intense that Sorun felt himself being pressed into the wall he'd been slammed into, felt his skin smoldering from the intensity of the power King Shadow was projecting alone.

Deep inside Sorun knew. A dreadful realization that, even with Yamato, he didn't have a chance of beating this thing. That primal and instinctual part of him was telling him flat-out this was an opponent beyond him, and with him losing the sword he was beyond hopeless. The only reason he wasn't being crushed to death under the weight of this power was because of Devil's Body, and even then he was struggling to weather it.

"This...? He... he had this kind of power the entire time...?"

There was movement along the stumps where King Shadow's hands had been cut off. Chaos energy, so condensed and pure it appeared to be a shifting, liquid form glowing an intense, blazing crimson, flowed out from the wounds. It was less the hands regenerated and more the raw Chaos energy simply formed itself into the shape of hands to mimic the function, and in those faux hands a single long Chaos Spear formed. A weapon that lacked the usual greenish-yellow hue. This Chaos Spear was an intense red, crackling with such energy and heat the air around it was being warped. All throughout the entire process King Shadow didn't halt his progress towards Sorun, or keep his burning gaze off the frozen human who could do nothing but stare at his approaching doom.

"You're... you're nothing but a monster... a demon... only a demon would use such a despicably perverse weapon like that thing you held..." King Shadow's voice was empowered enough that the very air was reverberating from its vibrations. It only emboldened the terror that was rapidly swelling inside of Sorun as King Shadow came within a meter of him. "I will not... let you kill countless people just to fulfill your warped desires... I promised her I would save this world... I promised her...!"

He rose the red Chaos Spear above his head, point directed right at Sorun. It shone with such intensity that the entire room almost looked darkened in comparison. Like the sun itself was right in front of Sorun and poised to strike through him. He wondered if there'd even be anything left of him once it hit. With how much energy he felt radiating off of that weapon he wouldn't be surprised if King Shadow ended up obliterating the entire castle with that thing.

It almost ended right there. Sorun had no doubt, absolutely zero, that being hit with that Chaos Spear would mean death for him, regeneration or not. All he could do was sit there, completely helpless, as King Shadow moved to thrust it down on him. He'd seen the muscles move, the tip of the spear descend towards him while King Shadow maintained that hellish gaze. It if weren't for the fact the energy pinning him down was so stifling Sorun would have screamed out in fury, outrage, and fear at his impending death. As it was all he could do was stare with horrified eyes as that terrible spear descended on him.

And then a pair of hands reached out from behind King Shadow and grabbed his head. A number of things followed this: King Shadow, who for all intents and purposes was the victor of the fight, began screaming. The red Chaos Spear faded from his grasp. The entire transformation faded, the Chaos energy supplementing his hands, the raging, red aura, the completely red body and white eyes, all of it. He reverted back to his normal form as his entire body was engulfed with a new, green aura of Chaos energy. Something that he quite obviously was doing his best to oppose as he flailed around in the grip locking his head in a vice.

After that he'd... frozen. Completely, and without warning. It was such a sudden thing, his screaming and flailing coming to such an abrupt halt, that Sorun almost assumed that, somehow, time had stopped. But there was no way it had, because he still managed to hear the quiet, ambient sounds of the empty throne room, and the green aura completely surrounding King Shadow's body was constantly in a state of movement, flowing around the black and red hedgehog. And yet the king himself was more than immobile - he was truly frozen in place. Expression completely locked in that terrible, raging expression, eyes motionless, handless arms uselessly trying to reach back and remove whatever was grabbing him. Somehow he looked more still than a statue.

It was like he was completely frozen in time.

Right when Sorun was catching his breath, his mind a whirlwind of relief over having narrowly avoided death again and confusion and lingering vestiges of fear, he saw a head with a smiling face poke over the frozen King Shadow's shoulder. Sorun couldn't help the exasperated sigh that left him when he saw it was Lara-Su's face, Knuckles' daughter. Any other time he would have had a negative reaction to the exuberant joy she held on her face, but at the moment he couldn't muster up the energy to do anything.

"Hey! Looks like I got here just in time!" The echidna teen maneuvered around King Shadow's frozen body - Sorun couldn't stop staring at it - and stood out in front of Sorun, bent down with a hand outstretched towards him. "I got here near the end of the fight. I hardly even needed to look for you two - the amount of Chaos energy you two were bleeding off was crazy!"

It took a few moments for Sorun to realize that the hand being offered to him was a sign that she wanted to help him up. He blinked at the appendage, and then, shakily, rose a hand up and accepted the hand. He was pulled up to his feet, though with how his legs wobbled Sorun was surprised he didn't fall right back down, and he didn't know if it was whether due to exhaustion or sheer shock over what just happened.

He still couldn't stop staring at King Shadow and his frozen expression. Really, he had no idea what was going on.

"You have a really funny surprised face." That single sentence was enough to drag Sorun out of his stupor and look besides him. There was a sheepish, teasing grin on Lara-Su's face. "I-I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself from pointing it out. What's the matter?"

"No-nothing, I... you..." Sorun looked away from the echidna and back towards King Shadow. "What did you do to him?"

"Really advanced Chaos Control technique," she replied, leaning around Sorun so she could stare at the king along with him. "Used a bit of time manipulation to force him in a stasis bubble. He's not aware of anything. As far as we have to worry he's stuck in there until the effect wears off."

"Ah... ah-huh..." Numbly, Sorun looked back at Lara-Su. "And how long will that take?"

The lighthearted smile she wore turned significantly more smug as she turned her nose away from Sorun. "Oh, I would count on him still being in there for my grandkids to see. And my grandkids' grandkids. And their grandkids. And so on and so forth."

"Oh, you can... you can just do that, alright..." Well that was certainly busted and overpowering to a degree that Sorun could barely comprehend it. He didn't even know that kind of thing was possible. Either Lara-Su inherited more than just good genes and powers from Knuckles or she really was a prodigy with this Chaos Control stuff. Or both, maybe. Sorun didn't know, and from how terrifying that thought was, that she could just pause somebody in time for that long, he didn't want to keep thinking on it.

There was still a sense of confusion going through him even though there shouldn't have been. Whiplash from going towards inevitable death to the threat being taken care of in such a short manner of time he was still recovering from it. Some parts of him were still shaking, eyes still locked onto King Shadow. Harmless now. Completely neutralized when he'd almost killed Sorun literal seconds prior. The fact that the danger had passed and that they'd technically won hadn't even crossed his mind as he stood there, stock still and staring as he shallowly breathed out.

"Won, we... we won, it's over? I-I, it's... We did it? I did it? She... it's really over, just like that? I'm not dead?"

"Hey, uh..." Distantly, he felt Lara-Su tug on the newly regenerated sleeve on his coat. Through great effort Sorun managed to turn his head towards her. "Not to ruin the moment, but what'd you do to your hair?"

Sorun didn't respond. His gaze had shifted back towards the frozen King Shadow. He maintained his gaze for a few seconds, and then turned his head slightly, so that he was staring at the blue Chaos Emerald across the room. He began to move towards it.

"Er, uh, guy? Sorun? Hey, what are... alright." Lara-Su trailed off as Sorun silently passed her on the way to the Chaos Emerald. Her eyes followed him, a slightly perturbed look on her face, but she shrugged it off and then turned towards the throne room entrance when she saw movement. "Oh hey, Tails!"

The flying fox flew into the throne room, his eyes immediately locked onto the motionless, blue hedgehog lying at the center of the room. Both he and Lara-Su raced to his position, concern written on their faces as they attempted to rouse him. Their relief became evident when Sonic groaned out, slowly sitting up with Tails' help while rubbing at his head.

"Ugh, what, uh... what happened? We do it?" He looked towards the other hedgehog on the other side of the room, blinking when he saw the green aura around his frozen form. "Ehck! What happened to him?"

Sorun reached the blue Chaos Emerald. He bent down and picked it up, the glowing gem shifting into the katana. He turned right back around and began moving back towards where King Shadow was.

"Oh, I did that. Froze him, I mean," Lara-Su explained to Sonic. "I saw Sorun was having some trouble with him so..."

The words faded off the further Sorun got from the trio. He barely even registered them, having stopped right in front of the paralyzed half-Mobian. Still holding that same expression with enough rage to shake the world. It almost seemed like he was looking at Sorun, even in that flailing pose.

It was difficult to classify one distinct emotion of Sorun's. Indignation. Anger, shame, defeat. Hate. Of all of them that was probably the most prevalent one, right next to indignation. All directed at the frozen figure in front of him, whirling through him and unceasing. Strong enough that Sorun almost felt his head splitting from all of it.

Once again, he'd almost died. Once again, he'd been beaten by somebody. Once again someone stronger and blessed with more power had to come save him because he just couldn't do it. The fact that Lara-Su could just do this, could just freeze someone in time using a technique she possessed just because she was born with those powers, infuriated him to no end. He'd put his all into it, with his weapon and a body superior even to Mobians, and he'd still lost.

"Power. Why is the problem always power? Why do I never have enough of it?" There was a soft scraping sound too quiet to make an echo as the Yamato was slowly pulled from its scabbard. "Why does everyone always have to have more power than me?" His eyes snapped to the side, towards the nearby trio of Mobians. Specifically at Lara-Su. "Why does she get to have so much power? Why does she get to smile like that? Like nothing's wrong?"

He knew he couldn't smile. There was nothing to be joyful about this situation. The world was wrong and everyone in it but him was wrong. He'd almost died twice, TWICE, in the same night, but people like her and even Tails and Sonic got to go on smiling like nothing was the matter. It pissed him off to no end. Why were they smiling when everything was still wrong?

The sword was fully pulled free. Sorun shifted his gaze back to King Shadow. Him. Every emotion Sorun held was multiplied by tenfold when he stared at the frozen hedgehog, eyes widened and irises constricted at his mere sight. The one that beat him.

He couldn't stop the images that kept flashing through his mind. Him being strapped to that electric table. The fight, him cutting through Sorun's body, Sorun losing. That enraged, red form, that scorching, suffocating aura. The imminent threat of death, over and over, on that chair, in his words, in that Chaos Spear that had hung over Sorun's head. Sorun being frightened through it all.

The final image of King Shadow cutting through Sorun's neck with a Chaos Spear was what pushed him to raise Yamato up and bring it down on the Mobian's neck.

A loud and wet slicing sound echoed through the throne room. The jubilant conversation between the three Mobians died off completely, and their attention was drawn to the source of the sound. All of their eyes widened in shock and horror when they saw Sorun standing in front of King Shadow, his katana buried halfway through the frozen one's neck.

Sorun's eyes widened further in anger, furious and frustrated that the sword, the sword that was supposed to effortlessly cut through everything, his sword, didn't instantly cut through King Shadow's neck because he just had to be so fucking special. He pulled the sword out of his neck, and then cleaved the sword down on the same spot. His silent fury only increased when it still didn't go all the way through.

He kept pulling the sword out just to keep slicing at King Shadow's neck. Spurts of blood kept flying out as a result, pausing midair as they were enveloped in the same green aura that was freezing him. Frozen moments of time that only grew in volume the more he kept cutting at King Shadow's neck.

"Sorun, what are you doing!?" Sonic screamed out. He attempted to get up to sprint to Sorun's position, but then made a grunt and fell back down onto his knees, his arm held over his aching chest. He turned pain-filled eyes upwards and reached an arm out towards Sorun. "SORUN, STOP IT!"

A running pair of footsteps and the sound of a whirling pair of tails was heard approaching behind Sorun. He didn't care. They weren't sounds he was capable of hearing at the moment over the rushing sound in his ears. All that he cared about was finally cutting through King Shadow's neck.

And then, right before Lara-Su and Tails reached him, he'd done it. With one final swing the Yamato finally managed to cut cleanly through King Shadow's neck. The green aura surrounding him and the blood faded, the red liquid splattering down at Sorun's feet as the body fell limply on the ground.

His head fell down shortly after, rolling a bit before coming to a stop. King Shadow's face, expression deadened but somehow still rage filled, stared out at Sorun with glassy, dead eyes. The human stared back at the red eyes, looking almost confused as his breathing became shallow.

"I... I killed him? I killed somebody? Shadow? I killed... I killed Shadow? I killed someone?"

He would have thought he'd flash back to the real Shadow. The one he was actually friends with. That images of someone who was actually his friend would replace the images of this Shadow flashing through his mind, and then be replaced by the image of the lifeless head. But there was nothing. In fact, all the thoughts and images that kept distressing him disappeared altogether, and Sorun felt himself slowly calming down the longer he looked at the head.

"Shouldn't... aren't I supposed to feel something right now...?"

He didn't. Not sorrow over killing someone that looked just like his friend. There wasn't relief over killing the source of all his recent anguish, no joy in killing the most major threat that opposed him, no vindication for what he'd done to Sorun and others, no sorrow at the fact he'd just taken a person's life. Just... calmness. That was what was most shocking to Sorun, how calming this all felt.

The calm was ripped away when he felt a pair of hands roughly grip his shoulders and turn him around. Sonic seemed to finally find the wherewithal to ignore his pain and had reached Sorun's position. There was... Sorun could scarcely describe the look on his face. Horror and anger, even outrage. There were similar looks on Tails' and Lara-Su's faces just behind him, the latter having risen her hands to her mouth she'd been so overcome with horror.

"Why did you do that!?" Sonic roared at him. His hands were squeezing down roughly on Sorun's shoulders, and there were even the beginning of tears pricking at the edges of his eyes. "You killed him! You... why!?"

"Why...?" Sorun echoed, confused, his voice sounding distant. "I-I-I-"

"You just killed Shadow! I can't believe- what were- what were you thinking-!?"

There was a sudden shift in Sorun's demeanor. In an instant he'd gone from appearing stunned and having a vacant look in his eyes to looking insulted and angered. The rush of anger was so intense that the hand holding the sword's scabbard lashed out, smacking Sonic across the face with the side of the scabbard. He grunted out in surprise and stumbled back, blinking his tears away and staring straight at Sorun as he held a hand to his face.

"Why!? The hell do you mean why!?" Sorun screamed at Sonic. "After everything he did you're telling me I was supposed to let him live!?"

"He was contained!" Sonic screamed back. "Helpless! He wasn't going to hurt anybody like that, and-and you just-!"

"Guys like that always come back, Sonic, they always do!" Sorun loudly argued, frantically shaking his head in refusal. "He was dangerous, he tried to kill us, fuck letting him live after all that." Breathing heavily, he turned his head down at the severed head. "Doesn't matter, I... I beat him. I won. I'm the winner. I fucking won. He didn't win, I did."

"You won!? That's your only take from this!?" The incredulity in Sonic's voice was mask by something breaking in his tone. "Y-you... Sorun, I can't... Sorun, how could you!?"

When Sorun looked back at Sonic, the Mobian looked at a genuine loss for words. From how he was sounding Sorun was expecting him to look angry, possibly getting ready to fight Sorun over what he just did. He would have been willing to, was even gripping Yamato to get ready for a fight.

What he was greeted to instead was a sight Sorun could barely fathom. He'd never seen so much raw disappointment on somebody's face before in his entire life. Disappointment and sadness, even grief, to the point that Sorun felt something uneasy in him stir when he saw Sonic giving him that look. Lara-Su certainly looked like she wanted to fight him, Sorun could have sworn he even saw a few flecks of green energy swirl between her fingers for a brief moment. Tails... he just looked completely shocked, arms and tails limp and his jaw hanging open.

"Sorun, you... you can't just kill somebody on a 'maybe'..." Sonic sadly mumbled out, shaking his head at the sight of King Shadow's severed head. "What makes you think this is okay?"

"Because it is okay. Fuck you for thinking it isn't." Sonic and the other two Mobians stiffened at Sorun's tone and words. He stomped past Sonic, eyes fixed to the ground. "I'm not gonna stand here taking criticism from someone so incompetent they can't keep their own kids from getting obliterated-"

He was stopped when Sonic's hand shot out and gripped Sorun's wrist. Sonic's head whipped up at a speed so quick it startled Sorun, eyes angered. Threatening.

"Sorun, you..." There was confliction in Sonic's face, amid the disappointment and new anger that was growing, but he seemed to be struggling to find the right words to say. "I... Sorun..."

"Let me go," Sorun demanded. Sonic's grip held firm, and in response a few bolts of blue lightning arced over Yamato's blade. "Is this really what you want to do? Really?"

Even in the face of the threat Sonic's gaze didn't waver in the slightest. Sorun saw Lara-Su take a step forwards, more green energy around her hands. A tinge of fear surged through Sorun at seeing that, plans already being made in his head to deal with the threat that could freeze him. Throw Sonic off of him, jump back while he was still holding on if need-be, get as far away from her as possible and use a Judgement Cut to-

"Everyone, stop it!" It was Tails that instantly shattered the tension between everyone. He stepped between Sorun and Sonic and, to everyone's surprise, wrenched the hedgehog's hand off of Sorun's wrist. "Fighting each other isn't going to solve everything!"

"You can't be serious!" Sonic argued. "Sorun just-!"

"I know what he did, but we're all going to die unless I get Sorun to do something!" Tails shouted. At seeing the bewildered looks everyone, even Sorun, gave him, he sighed out and shook his head. "It's... look, just let him go, alright? I get it, I do, but this is important. Please just trust me."

Sonic looked like he wanted to object. So did Lara-Su, but the tone Tails used, that desperate, pleading tone, gave them both pause. After what looked like much internal struggle, Sonic released Sorun, though he still maintained that angry, disappointed glare as he backed off. Lara-Su looked more hostile than anything else, but she'd still relented, letting the energy around her hands fade as she walked away along with Sonic.

"..." Sorun watched them walk off, expression moving back to apathy. He sheathed Yamato, eyes still lingering on Sonic's spiked back before he shook his head. This wasn't a matter that was going to be dropped, but Sorun didn't have any regrets. He'd deal with it if it became a problem. For now he had Tails to deal with. Him and... whatever this new problem was. When he looked at Tails, he had on what was probably the gravest expression he'd ever seen the fox wear. For some reason he felt like it wasn't because he just cut someone's head off.

"Sorun, we need to talk. We need to talk about something really important."